


Home

by muggle95



Category: The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher, Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 1, Deaf Character, Long Distance Relationships, Multi, Polyamory, diverse mythologies, world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-04
Updated: 2020-03-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:15:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23011588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muggle95/pseuds/muggle95
Summary: Sometimes it helps to talk to your partners
Relationships: Kate/Kelly, which is basically OFC/OFC
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Purimgifts 2020





	Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [gostaks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gostaks/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Love is All You Need to Destroy Your Enemies](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2207475) by [shadydave](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadydave/pseuds/shadydave). 



> With thanks to [shadydave](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadydave/pseuds/shadydave%22) for always sharing her toys and to [knight_bus_of_doom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/knight_bus_of_doom/pseuds/knight_bus_of_doom) for the last minute beta

Kate sat heavily on the bed of her newly-rented apartment. The landlord was just as eccentric and confusing to deal with in person as he had seemed online, but the furnished apartment was in good condition, quieter than the motel she’d been in for the past few days, and was within her limited budget, so she was happy with it.

She sighed, and got back up to retrieve her iPad from her backpack, which she had shrugged off near the door. She glanced around the room, but there was no convenient place to set it while sitting nearby and in view of the camera, so she settled on her bed, with her back against the wall, and her iPad propped on her knees. She pulled up Facetime and frowned at the preview video, signing experimentally at it. She was uncomfortably close to the camera, but as long as she didn’t get too excited, Kelly should be able to understand her.

She pressed Kelly’s name, and waited until her girlfriend picked up.

“Kate!” Kelly signed, as her hand retreated from having answered the call. Kate grinned at how Kelly’s enthusiasm exaggerated the motion of her sign name. Kate felt a surge of affection, a sense of belonging, and wondered, now that she was taking the wizard more seriously, if her “true name” was somehow connected to her name sign. If so, it was interesting that a name she’d only been given two years prior was truer than the name she had grown up with.

“Hi, Kelly,” Kate signed back, letting a bright smile take over her face, but keeping her signs small and in view. “Where’s Joe?”

“Joe is preparing for his date with Andy,” Kelly answered. She had to spell out Andy’s name because he hadn’t been in the polycule long enough to be given a sign name. “I don’t know if he’ll be back tonight. And no,” she added, at Kate’s waggling eyebrows “I haven’t known Andy long enough to negotiate them sharing sexy videos with me. If you want them, you’ll have to ask Andy directly.”

“ _Boooring_ ,” Kate signed back, with a wide, amused smile to express how little she was actually bothered.

Kelly beamed right back. “How was your day? Is that a new bed?”

“Yeah, I’m not in the motel anymore!” Kate signed. “I’ve got an apartment! Would you like the tour, or some other time when Joe can interpret?”

“Tomorrow, with Joe?” Kelly suggested.

Kate nodded her understanding. “Of course. The rest of my day, it was _weird._ ”

“Tell me about it.”

“I’m starting to think that wizard guy isn’t just a weirdo with a sword, and maybe my Lola’s stories were as serious as she always acted while telling them.” ‘Lola’ was halfway between a name sign and a title – Kate wasn’t Deaf, so she wasn’t really supposed to be giving name signs, but her Lola and her Grandma had such different roles in her life, it felt weird to use the same sign for them. Kelly hadn’t scolded her for modifying the sign for grandmother, so Kate kept using her variant to mean Lola.

“The stories about fairies and murderous fish people?”

Kate resisted the urge to correct Kelly to the Filipino words as she would an English speaker. Those were close enough concepts for kahoynon and ugkoy, and ASL wasn’t English anyway. If there was a Filipino Sign Language with more appropriate signs, she hadn’t learned it.

“Yeah, those stories. My necklace shattered today.” She held up the mangled remains of the silver pendant where a blue glass ‘diamond’ had once been set, before letting it fall limply to her chest again. It wasn’t the same without the weight of the stone. “The wizard was trying to get us to go the other way. He seemed surprised that the thing — he was tracking something but I never quite saw it — apparently backed off abruptly. And you know, Lola always said the necklace was for protection. Maybe it protected me a bit too hard?”

“That’s one hell of a cold read,” Kelly observed.

“He didn’t even notice my necklace until ten minutes later,” Kate argued. “I’m worried he’s legit, and that this town isn’t just bizarre, but genuinely magical.”

“Sorry, the video glitched,” Kelly signed with a frown. “Sign that again? The town is bizarre but what?”

“Bizarre but also truly magical,” Kate repeated.

“Are you scared of the town?” Kelly asked, perceptively. The video stuttered, but quickly enough that Kate could still make out the signs.

“I’m nervous,” Kate admitted, downplaying the emotion by making the sign small. Truthfully, she was a little more than nervous, but not as scared as she had been of both the strange, battered-looking man and the humongous sand worms that he had probably saved them from when he first appeared.

“You could always come home,” Kelly suggested. “There’s other professors here – I’m sure you could transfer to one of them.”

“No. I _want_ to be a part of this team,” Kate signed, with a slow determination. Despite her nerves, she really did want to stay. “Besides, Doctor Breuniger is a good teacher, but his research is more about undersea formations, and I’m more interested in the _land_. Both its history and how it continues to develop today.” They’d had similar conversations more than once before Kate committed to this trip. It was hard on all of them for her to be away, but her partners always respected that Kate had to make her own decisions, even if they did tease that, when she finally came back, she would be banished to the old twin bed Joe had slept on before moving in with them, instead of the king they now shared

By the glint in Kelly’s eyes, she was about to start teasing again. “Tell me about your day?” Kate asked, both out of genuine interest and to change the subject.

Kelly accepted the topic change easily. “Nothing too exciting, Doctor Harrison had us preparing the fruit fly lab for the 102 classes.” Kelly shook her head in exasperation. “And you know the kids will just–“

The video froze again.

“Sign that again. The kids will just what?” Kate asked, when the video feed caught up.

“They’ll be negligent and clumsy, and let out enough fruit flies that we have to leave the department to eat lunch. Like they did last year.”

“Didn’t you tell me it was just that one cocky 18-year-old last year, who wanted to prove he was fast enough to clap them all out of the sky?” Kate asked.

“He failed the class over that bullshit so–“ Kate could tell Kelly was really irritated because she used the bigger, unmistakable sign for 'bullshit' that took both hands, rather than the subtler one she usually preferred, but the video froze again, cutting off the rest of Kelly’s sentence.

“I’m sorry, can you sign that again?” Kate signed, once it caught up.

“He’s in… again,” Kate could make out this time.

“I’m sorry, repeat that again?” Kate asked.

“…frustrated… text…”

Kate’s phone chimed with a text from Kelly. She held it up in question, and after a moment Kelly moved to disconnect facetime. _He failed over that bullshit so he’s in my class AGAIN_ , the text read.

Kate cringed in sympathy. _Nooooooo_ , she sent back. _Can you ban him from that lab?_

She set the tablet aside, and stretched out on the bed. She would need to get up for her charger and her pajamas later, but for now she would relax. Talking to her partners always made her feel better.

**Author's Note:**

> Alan! I know this is _barely_ the Dresden Files, but you said crossovers were great and to check out your bookmarks for ideas, and you have _all_ of dave's crossover series bookmarked, so I hope you liked this very niche spinoff :)


End file.
